Tag Archives: ingreedies

When I was asked to review this recipe book for children, I was in two minds. My children are firm believers that if they’ve not eaten something a hundred times before or if it isn’t coated in breadcrumbs then that’s their cue for a bout of overdramatic gagging.

But then I thought: Goddammit! Thou shalt eat foods that aren’t yellow! One day we shalt go on holiday and you shalt eat something other than chips!

My kids aren’t unique or peculiar, their foodie horizons are just limited like those of thousands of other stubborn pint-sized stick-in-the-muds out there. It’s this that the couple who created Around the World with the Ingreedies, Zoë Bather and Joe Sharpe, are cleverly trying to address.

This isn’t just another cookbook for kids that persuades them to eat by making faces with tomatoes or sailing boats from stale bread. This is a beautiful, imaginative book packed with geographical foodie facts and exciting recipes and ideas. Chris Dickason’s illustrations of the Ingreedie characters will take you right back to the 1980s and Pedro Orange and Merv Marrow in the Munch Bunch books.

Aesthetically, the book won me over as soon as I opened it. In practice? I was sceptical. There needed to be a taste test. To do this I asked my kids to pick a recipe and then pitted them against the book’s ‘Mealtime Manifesto’.

“We think family mealtimes should be fun. There’s a wealth of exciting dishes out there that the whole family can enjoy together”

Agree. Who wants to spend an hour banging their head against a brick wall telling their kids to eat their broccoli? This book certainly has a range of dishes that I’d be happy to eat – with or without the kids. The issue we had was finding something we could “enjoy together” because the youngest taste buds in our house only want fifty shades of bland. My little darlings refused to try anything in the book other than the Australian Fusion Burgers (minus the chilli of course).

“The book is full of fascinating food facts from around the world, along with a recipe for each country we visit”

Absolutely. This is far more than just a recipe book (there are only 13 recipes included). The pages are packed with facts, maps and information – and humour (think Richard Scarry). Did you know that Napoleon asked for his bread to be made long and thin so his soldiers could carry it down their trousers? Is that a baguette down your trousers, Claude, or are you just pleased to see me?

“We don’t expect kids to like everything they’re given to eat. But we do believe if you tell them about the history and culture of food, it will inspire them to try something new”

Predictably, my kids didn’t like the burgers. I’m not sure knowing the “recipe fuses the flavours of Thailand with the famous Aussie meal – the barbeque” inspired them, but at least they tried the tiniest fleck. Mummy was of course wise enough to have bought some plain bulk standard burgers in anticipation of this.

“We want to encourage the next generation to become inventive, passionate cooks, and leave them with a greater love and understanding of food”

We had great fun cooking together and the recipes were easy to follow. Ultimately, the recipes may be a little too adventurous for kids like mine. But you know what? If it gets kids enjoying the creative process of cooking, who cares if you end up having to substitute their food with something less exciting (and probably yellow). It’s about setting in place skills for the future and leaving their minds open (or at least slightly ajar) to the potential for a world beyond cheesy strings.

In short, a fabulous book that looks great and is fun to read. If you know any children with even slightly more culinary balls than mine, then you won’t go too far wrong buying them a copy for Christmas.